Number of BBC chiefs earning £100,000 or more rises despite pledge to cut salaries

The number of BBC chiefs earning more than £100,000 a year has risen, despite
a pledge by the organisation to reduce "sky-high" salaries and perks.

In January 2011, the BBC paid 310 staff more than £100,000, down from 382 in 2010Photo: Getty Images

By Telegraph reporters

9:30AM GMT 23 Jan 2013

Lord Patten of Barnes, chairman of the BBC Trust, told The Telegraph in July that he would cut the number of senior managers from around 530 to 200 by 2015, to put an end to the "toxic" issue of executive pay.

“Licence fee payers don’t expect the BBC to pay sky-high commercial rewards to people that work for a public service,” he said at the time.

But a freedom of information request showed today that the BBC now pay 360 staff £100,000 or more. Only 310 employees were in the top tier salary bracket in January 2011.

Director General Tony Hall earns £450,000-a-year and it is believed that more than 130 of the 360 BBC bosses earn more than £142,500 or more - topping David Cameron's pay-packet.

The list does not include "on air talent" such as Gary Linekar, who earns around £2million-a-year, Graham Norton on around £1.5million and 16 other stars on £500,000 or more a year.

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Eighty-five per cent of the BBC's 23,000 employees earn £21,788, the national median income in the UK.

The BBC said that it was open about the pay-packets of 100 of its most senior staff, saying their salaries were "publicly available" to view, but that other workers who earn more than £100,000 have a "right to privacy".

A spokesman for the BBC confirmed that figures from November 2012 - the most recently available - showed that 19,596 of the BBC's 23,000 workers earned over £21,788.

That means just 3,404 workers in the entire organisation - just 14.8 per cent of its workforce - earn under £21,788.

The median income indicator is said to be a more reliable estimate than average income stats as it takes into account the salaries of the UK's 6m part-time workers.

The spokesman, in response to the Freedom of Information request, said: "As at 30th November 2012 there were 360 individuals employed by the BBC on continuing or fixed term contracts whose total salary is greater than £100,000."

She added: "The BBC recognises that the salary levels of senior managers in any large scale organisation can often seem high but these very senior managers are directly responsible for both large sums of public money and the huge amount of output produced across all parts of the BBC.

"Those who pay the Licence Fee rightly expect the very best programmes and services that we can offer them and we therefore have to attract the best creative talent in a very competitive broadcasting marketplace to ensure that this occurs."